Evans witnessed his hopes of a maiden world title evaporate for one more season final weekend on the Central European Rally.
The Welshman admitted previous to the occasion that his title prospects have been slim, however the title struggle would have gone right down to the season finale in Japan subsequent month if he’d outscored Rovanpera on the asphalt phases.
Finally a crash for Evans on stage 11 opened the door for Rovanpera to seal back-to-back titles, the Finn cruising by means of the ultimate checks to complete second behind Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.
Nonetheless Evans, who claimed wins in Croatia and Finland, feels the title race may have been completely different had he not crashed out of sixth when he was main the championship standings in Portugal.
He additionally believes ending solely fourth in Estonia was a missed alternative given his velocity on related gravel roads in Finland.
“Certain through the season [I have regrets],” Evans advised Autosport. “I imply Portugal, and whereas it was a very large crash, it was a little bit of a silly crash.
“Generally being courageous is okay, however silly courageous just isn’t so shiny, in order that was one. I believe there are a number of areas that we undoubtedly may have executed higher.
“I look again, I’m kicking myself about Estonia as a result of if I had the sensation I had with the automotive in Finland, it may have been very, very completely different.
Picture by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
“Finland got here really easy and but Estonia was such a battle. If we had discovered that automotive two weeks earlier it might have helped lots.”
Though upset to overlook out on the title, Evans says Rovanpera absolutely deserved a second consecutive championship, labelling his rival’s marketing campaign as an “unbelievable season”.
“At the beginning, I wish to say congratulations to Kalle. He has pushed an unbelievable season and he deserves it,” he added.
“From our facet we knew it was a slim likelihood. We needed to attempt to it didn’t work out sadly and it has put us underneath extra stress from Neuville [who is now seven points behind Evans in the standings], however on the finish of the day it is just the championship that actually issues.
“Right here [at the Central European Rally] on Friday there was no likelihood to comply with Kalle as a result of I believe the highway place gave you a bonus of about 5 seconds per stage.
“After all he drove higher nonetheless, so clearly there’s something to remove from that, however we additionally know the way good he’s in these tough situations, his fashion appears to swimsuit it very nicely.
“A minimum of issues are shifting in the fitting approach. Even from my facet there was extra progress on tarmac at this rally, and I do know we received Croatia, however we had a bit higher kind right here.”
Evans is nevertheless happy by the upward trajectory of his kind in comparison with final season when he struggled to gel with the GR Yaris.
Picture by: Toyota Racing
Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
“I hold saying issues are shifting to be higher,” he mentioned. “Nearly two years in the past it was dire, so at the very least issues are shifting in the fitting approach.
“It’s simply the sensation of confidence and getting the automotive to do a bit extra of what I need.
“It isn’t like I’ve gone in a very route to everyone else it was that I simply couldn’t address the issues that have been occurring initially [in 2022] when the others may.
“From this 12 months onwards, issues have been fairly good with the automotive and I’m nonetheless bettering on a regular basis.”